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“I need a gentle dog,” she told Xandra, one of the employees from ARF who actually got paid.
The twenty-something with a streak of blue in her hair glanced at the clipboard in her hand.
“You’re in luck. We have you matched with Phoebe.” The girl pointed to a blonde cocker spaniel in a crate a few feet away. “She’s perfect on a leash.”
“Thank you.”
The pup’s stubby tail wiggled furiously when she noticed Dakota unhook the leash from the wire crate and lean down to open the latch.
Like a polite, little lady, she sat perfectly still while Dakota hooked the lead to her collar, then trotted alongside her so there was slack in the nylon tether when they walked into the ballroom. It was a far cry from Barney’s tugging with excitement whenever they went for a walk.
She thought about all the walks she’d taken the pit bull on that week at World’s End, especially once she’d texted with Aiden, and he’d told her he’d been, too.
They’d never run into each other again.
And while she’d been disappointed, she thought maybe it was just the Universe’s way of looking out for her.
She and Phoebe approached two men in tuxedos near the bar. One was a silver fox, and he smiled broadly when he looked down at her cocker spaniel companion.
“She looks just like the dog I had growing up,” he said as he bent down and affectionately scratched Phoebe behind the ears.
“She’s available for adoption.”
“I work a hundred hours a week. I have no business owning a dog.”
“I completely understand. Maybe you’d be interested in sponsoring her adoption then?” She handed him a tri-fold pamphlet.
He glanced down at the glossy brochure in his hand. “Maybe.”
The other man smiled at her and an image of him and her sister popped in her head. Along with Phoebe.
That’s weird.
Dakota knew from experience that sometimes she needed to give her visions time before they made sense. But she suspected Phoebe might have found her new owner.
She wished the men good luck on their silent auction bids and walked along the tables in the ballroom that were starting to fill with guests.
Approaching a table with familiar faces, her breath caught in her throat when she noticed a certain sexy doctor who’d rocked her world only a few shorts weeks ago.
In a fucking tuxedo.
Not fair, Universe. Not fair.
Dakota knew the second he noticed her—his face lit up with his perfect smile, and the grey around his aura gave way to a rainbow of red, green, orange and yellow. She loved that he was as happy to see her as she was him.
He stood when she approached, murmuring, “Well, well, look what the Universe has delivered.”
She felt the butterflies take flight in her stomach as he embraced her in a warm hug.
Closing her eyes briefly, she breathed in the scent of his sandalwood cologne and felt her body release tension she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding.
Some massage therapist she was.
“You look stunning, Sunshine,” he whispered in her ear.
“Thank you. So do you.”
He ran his hand up and down her back, and she basked in the contentment she felt with his touch. Then he gave her a lingering kiss where her ear met her cheek, before reluctantly releasing her, but reached for her hand, as if he needed to keep touching her.
